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Sophomore forward Rachel Hollivay recently started wearing an oversized contact lens that has coincided with a marked improvement in her play. (Mark Sullivan/MyCentralJersey.com)

PISCATAWAY — The phone rang in the middle of the night — a universal sign of trouble in the coaching industry. Only this time, it was Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer dialing the numbers in need of emotional support, and it was her 19-year-old player, Rachel Hollivay, answering and providing the soothing comfort.

Stringer, 65, was diagnosed with an infection in her cornea during last offseason and was struggling to adjust to a new reality that includes wearing prescription sunglasses while coaching the Rutgers women’s basketball team.

She also began to appreciate just what life is like for one of her rising stars.

“I understood for once what was really going on and what she really couldn’t see, and why things are going to her in a delayed fashion,” Stringer said. “She was the only person that I could relate to.”

Hollivay struggles with an eye condition that has impacted her on the court for more than four years.

The 6-foot-4 sophomore center has undergone two eye surgeries, both when she was 16 years old and emerging as one of the nation’s top high school players. The first resulted in 32 stiches. The second was a cornea transplant.

“Sometimes I would sit in my room and think, ‘I’m really just playing with one eye. I don’t even see how I’m doing it,’ ” Hollivay said. “In basketball, everything happens so fast.”

Car crash

Hollivay’s blurred vision stems from a horrific car accident that happened Sept. 18, 2009, on her rainy 30-minute drive home from the practice courts at the waterfront Lock and Dam in Columbus, Miss. As Hollivay recalls, she was driving about 50 mph around a curve when her Toyota Camry hit a puddle, hydroplaned off the road, flipped four times and slammed into a tree.

“If I did not hit the tree, I would’ve been in the lake,” Hollivay said. “I got knocked out for like two or three seconds while we were flipping and when I came to I saw us bash into the tree. I was lying flat on my back and glass was on top of me all over. I have markings everywhere.”

About Ryan Dunleavy

Ryan Dunleavy has covered Rutgers athletics for more than a decade, dating back to his days as a student at his alma mater. He became New Jersey Press Media’s Rutgers women’s basketball beat writer in 2009 and Rutgers football beat writer in 2013. Since joining the staff in 2004, the Morris County native also has covered the NFL, MLB, NBA, the Somerset Patriots and high school sports.

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